I wonder how many of these are out there. Here is a photo of mine. This one has been rode hard and put away wet but it has a pretty stock. The stock is serial numbered to the gun.

Nice wood. Steel or damascus?

My Remington 1900 has steel barrels, ejectors, and a pistol grip.

Steel

Great gun!

Mine has steel barrels and is a KEY model

Mike

Nice piece of wood, but the nose of the comb doesn't look like Remington Arms Co. work to me.

Mine is also a KEY. This shotgun is a real club. It weighs 8 pounds 14.6 ounces which is more than my 10 GA weighs. I wonder if this 1900 was specially ordered and if Remington even offered that with the 1900. If it could only talk.

The forend has the serial number stamped in the wood. I can take a photo of it tomorrow and post it. To my eye it appears to be factory original.

Reseacher I'm with you on this one. One glance at the butt stock says restock. The profile of the comb at the wrist doesn't seem right compared with my 1900's. And I haven't seen anything remotely close on a 1900 with a piece of wood with that kind of figure. Take it over to the Remington Collectors forum and let them debate it. Harsh words I'm sure.

My question is how many of you out there have seen any other 1900's with a straight grip stock? The stock and forend both have the guns serial number professionally stamped in the wood. I will have to try and get some photos of that tomorrow. If the gun was restocked in the past it was done by a very talented gunsmith. Unfortunately time has not been good to this 1900 and it has several issues with it. I have owned this shotgun for several years and often wondered about its past. I might just take it over to the Remington Society forum and see what they have to say over there. That site does not get very much traffic however. I realize this 1900 does not look like most others, that is why I am sharing these photos. I often wondered why they went to the trouble to doll up a 1900 when they had the 1894 platform to work with.

Never have seen a straight grip 1900.

Every Remington SxS I've ever seen has had a fluted comb. That's the anomaly I see.

That stock has an odd shape to my eye as well.

How Do we signify it was professionally stamped? I own punch sets in two different sizes and some of my guys have done pretty amateur jobs stamping with them. But, they were getting paid for the job ....

Inletting the "Widow's Peak" buttplate is a costly pain.
Most 1900's I see have been lopped off and a recoil pad added.

Seems anomalous to re-inlet the buttplate on a replacement stock.

I'd say that the original stock has been modified for some reason.

Here are some photos of the wood.

The gun in question has the later style action, so probably would have had the flat butt plate. The K-Grades were never cataloged with anything but the half-pistol grip.

Through most of the production period, the A- through C-quality guns were only cataloged with the half-pistol or full pistol grip, but we sure don't see many with the full-pistol grip. There was the straight-gripped CEO-Grade Pigeon or Trap gun though. The D- and E-quality guns were cataloged with either a full pistol grip or a straight grip. By the 1903-04 catalog the E-quality guns were also offered with the half-pistol grip. By the first 1906 Remington Arms Co. catalog the D-quality guns were also offered with the half-pistol grip. Beginning in the 1908 catalogs the A-, B- and C-quality guns were all offered with straight, half or full pistol grip, though for the A- and B-quality guns they never got "straight" into the text, but they pictured a straight gripped AEO- and BEO-Grades.

For very late guns, from 1910, when Remington Arms Co. was finishing up orders and getting all their inventory of break-action guns out the door for the sale to Norvell Shapleigh Hardware in St Louis, I believe one can expect all manner of combinations of parts

Researcher
This shotgun has the original butt plate with the widows peak although it has been very poorly repaired in the past. The barrels also have a concave rib. After seeing the stamping of the SN in the wood what is your opinion. Does it look factory or non factory. I just posted this over at the Remington Society forum under post 1898.

Also the only other straight grip Remington I own is the CEO 16 GA. It is obviously not factory original as it has an extension added very professionally using a half lap soldered and engraving added that looks very good. I have no idea who would have done this. It also has a silver initial plate inletted into the stock. The inletting is no where near as professional looking at the job done on this 1900.

According to the serial number chronology in Charles Semmer's book, this would be a 1907 vintage gun. One other minor point for pondering is that all the K-quality guns I've recorded from the 359xxx range on up have the serial number on the trigger guard preceded by a Q.

That forend screw is kind bright too.

That is one of the "issues" I mentioned this gun has. It is a modern wood screw.

I can picture an employee seeing this nice rough turned, semi-inlet stock, possibly rejected for a higher grade gun because of some minor flaw or defect, and either himself or a stock fitter buddy fitting it to a lower grade gun for him. Might explain why no Q on the trigger guard. Q was an inventory stock letter for the K-quality guns and this gun never went into inventory. All pure speculation, but that is all we have.

I mentioned above, 1907 and dieNusse1 over on the Remington Society site did also. We should keep in mind that these guns in general didn't leave the factory in serial number order. Charles did his chronology by totaling up numbers of guns shipped from shipping records, as there are no production records for the individual guns, or at least they haven't been found yet.

With the A.H. Fox Gun Co. where we have individual production cards, we see guns that were finally finished up and shipped years later then guns around them. I own two guns that are fourteen serial numbers apart, one shipped in 1914 and the other was not shipped until 1918. They would both be 1914 in the Fox serial number chronology available on-line. A friend down in Virginia has a gun that was started in a batch of five higher grade guns in the late 1920s. Four of the guns were finished and shipped as XE-Grades in the late 1920s, and his gun was finally stocked and engraved as an AE-Grade and shipped in 1940. But, it has all the receiver profiling of an XE- or higher grade Fox.

Researcher
I am a little confused. I realize that we will never know for sure but are you saying that the lack of a Q in the SN means this shotgun was never in inventory for sale to the general public. If an employee wanted to purchase a shotgun back in the day was it common practice not to inventory the gun or do you think this was a lunch box special. Since we are speculating here I suppose it is also possible this shotgun was made up as a prize for the winner of some pigeon shoot. It is a shame that the Remington records are not readily available for scrutiny. I thought I heard a few years ago that the records really do exist but that Remington did not want to be bothered with researchers pestering them for access to them. Thank you all for answering my questions to the best of your abilities.

I think what we learn from these investigations is that there was a wide assortment of variations in firearms that weren't standard factory and there were some very good 'forgers' who made things look factory. I have a D grade Parker that left the factory with a pistol grip. I bought it with a straight grip and a long trigger guard with proper serial number stamping and engraving. My stocker who is refinishing it says the stock is not original. Where did the trigger guard come from? Go figure.

Tamid
You make a very good point. However faking the upgrade of a Remington 1900 would be akin to faking the upgrade of a Parker Trojan would it not. I am sure we will never know how this 1900 came to be made with upgraded wood and a straight grip stock but I highly doubt it is the product of a forger. I think most of them were working on Parkers, Winchesters and Colts.

I think what we learn from these investigations is that there was a wide assortment of variations in firearms that weren't standard factory and there were some very good 'forgers' who made things look factory. I have a D grade Parker that left the factory with a pistol grip. I bought it with a straight grip and a long trigger guard with proper serial number stamping and engraving. My stocker who is refinishing it says the stock is not original. Where did the trigger guard come from? Go figure.

Strange up graded wood on lower grade guns does come along once in a while. I had a Lefever DS with a butt stock which would have been at home on a Optimus grade. Burl, grain contrast, fiddle back great flow through the wrist. It had to be either a cleanup the stock gun or one made for an employee. By serial number it was not at the end but Lefver serial numbers are not that definitive as to when they are made. I wish I had not sold it but it was just a DS which cleaned up nicely and then the wood popped into view. The metal needed full restoration to bring it back and I am done with restorations.

I certainly don't know that for a fact. All speculation. The one thing I am certain of is that there is no one left alive who worked in the shotgun department at Remington Arms Co. when these guns were built that could tell us the "facts."

Sorry for the double post above.

I use the word forger in the most broad context and perhaps not the best word to use. There are those who restore and make new pieces so well as to be un-distinguishable from the factory piece. Some do it with malice intent to deceive and others as a normal process in the restoration of a gun. It is at the other end with open disclosure that counts. However after a said gun has passed a few hands the history of the replacement piece is lost and we can only speculate on the purpose and intent.

If we go back to the OP's gun, I think it is generally determined that a normal 1900 would not have this grade of wood. How and why it is on this gun leads to the fun of discovery in collecting these vintage firearms.

Yes the model 1900 was made with a straight grip it was special order. I have one in 16ga. I see about two a year on gun broker and at gun show's that were original. There was one on gun broker about two or three week's ago. Serial number and inletting looks correct on this gun but the completed wood dose not look Remington.

Thank you very much Ithaca, I found the one on Gunbroker and it is a few hundred serial numbers later than mine. Now the mystery is the quality of the wood on mine. I wish it was in better shape but it is what it is.

I just wanted to add that I enlarged the photo of the grip iron of the one for sale on Gunbroker and I do not see a Q in front of the serial number.

Hi My serial number on my 16ga. model 1900 with straight grip is 338713.

Remington has let people from the Remington Society look at old records I believe once a year for a week. Not sure about the time frame.